Sympathy for the revel - Glastonbury 2013

It’s not every day we trump the
Rolling Stones. But more than once at Glastonbury 2013, I overheard people
pointing to the Greenpeace field and saying “that’s been my favourite thing at
the festival”.

They came for the
snow, for the Northern Lights, for the Svalbard-themed
Farmers’ market [read: mojito chocolate truffles] and the hot tubs; for the
Arctic explorers, the skate ramp and the polar bears.

Throughout the festival, snow fell
serenely across the field – dusting its boats, jetties, boardwalks and
icebergs. Cool was a legitimate word for it. But what really blew people away
was the snowball fight, held on the Friday evening and broadcast live on the One
Show.

The field’s theme this year was the
Arctic – that untouched, pristine wilderness at the top of the world, at risk
because of climate change and companies like Shell wanting to exploit it for
oil. Over the course of the festival, an incredible 4,000 people signed up to
the Save the Arctic campaign –
joining the 3 million people from around the world who’ve already done so.

A highlight of the Greenpeace
field was undoubtedly the Arctic Dome, voted by Time
Out as the second best non-musical thing to do at the festival and
previewed by NME. It
offered people the opportunity to disappear through a crack in the ice and take
a magical 15-minute trip to the North Pole, where ice towered and the Northern
Lights danced.

Lily Cole swung by. Michael Eavis
dropped in for a sandwich and cup of tea. And a BBC 2 producer who filmed a
segment in our explorers’ hut with Ann Daniels and Paula Bear - said it was the best thing she’d shot at Glastonbury
– “and I’ve been doing it for years”.

Over 300 Greenpeace volunteers and representatives come to Glastonbury every year - carpenters and builders, painters and decorators, campaigners and stewards. They are part of the magic, they CREATE the magic. Thank you to all those involved. See you next year!